There is also the constant conflating of climate policy with climate science in order to make subjective and ideological policy choices seem as if the science dictates those choices. But science informs policy, it does not provide objective answers to policy questions. However, those who disagree with the climate policy choices favored by extremists are labeled with offensive terms like deniers.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute rejects climate policies that assume Americans and humans all over the world must sacrifice their quality of living, be guilted into radical life changes, and give up on improving their standard of living in the name of fighting climate change. Even if the United States no longer existed, there would be little to no meaningful impact on global temperatures. Therefore, the myriad of extreme policies are all costs and no gain.
Using the force of government to impose policies that severely hurt humans today, especially the poor, without any meaningful benefits is not just foolish but indefensible. And when such policies are advanced, the proponents of those policies should always be expected to explain how their policy choices would meaningfully affect global temperatures. When they are unable to provide answers, which will be the case, their policy choices should be quickly dismissed.
The best way to deal with any genuine climate concerns is to remove government obstacles that hinder innovation, reduce wealth, and undermine prosperity and opportunity. Economic liberty benefits Americans generally, and at the same time, it is also the world’s best climate policy. After all, the wealthiest and most prosperous nations are far more likely to develop solutions to such problems than other nations.
Featured Posts
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Earth Day is broken—only private conservation can fix it
With this week’s 2025 Earth Day came the usual media and progressive lawmaker fanfare lauding government programs and regulatory solutions to environmental concerns. But…
Blog
Tossing gold bars off the Titanic is just the tip of the IRA iceberg
The Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rushed to dole out billions of taxpayer dollars before President Donald Trump took office. A former Biden EPA official…
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CEI-led coalition urges Congress to end Green New Deal policies embedded in the Inflation Reduction Act
The Competitive Enterprise Institute today sent a coalition letter to Congress urging lawmakers to make it a priority to get rid of the Inflation Reduction…
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News Release
Institute President Attacks “Greenhouse Pork”
Washington, DC, March 25, 1998 — CEI President Fred L. Smith, Jr. today called for an end to federal subsidies for research and development…
Newsletter
Vol. II, No. 6
Politics Backdoor Implementation Some Senators fear that Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat misled them when he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “We have…
News Release
Don’t Sign The Kyoto Protocol: Climate Treaty Is Dangerous to U.S., World
WASHINGTON, DC, March 16, 1998 — “The Kyoto Protocol is a dangerous treaty, and President Clinton should not sign it,” said Marlo Lewis, Jr.,…
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Vol. II, No. 5
Politics The Administration’s Negotiating Strategy On March 4, 1998, Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat reassured the House Commerce Subcommittee that the U.S. was committed to…
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Climate Care
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Full article available in pdf format …
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Vol. II, No. 4
Politics Senator Inhofe Opposes Clinton’s Greenhouse Budget U.S. Senator James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) has made it clear he will oppose the Clinton Administration’s $6.3 billion…
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Vol. II, No. 3
Politics Clinton’s Multi-billion Dollar Plan On January 30, the Clinton administration announced a $6.3 billion emissions reduction plan. The budget for fiscal year 1999 will…
News Release
CEI Blasts Big-Government Era State of Union Message
Washington DC, January 28 –”President Clinton’s State of the Union message makes it clear that the era of big government is not over,” said…
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Vol. II, No. 2
Politics No Stealth Implementation Rep. David McIntosh, R-Ind., directed his Government Reform and Oversight regulatory subcommittee to send letters to the Environmental Protection Agency, the…
Newsletter
Vol. II, No. 1
Politics You Think One Kyoto is Bad? Try Thirty Jorge Sarmiento of Princeton University told Science (December 19, 1997) after the completion of the Kyoto…
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Free Market Mission to Kyoto
Japan’s Foreign Minister opened the United Nations climate conference in Kyoto by calling it "an event that could change the history of mankind." Hoping to…
Newsletter
Vol. I, No. 12
Politics What Have We Done? In November the Clinton Administration announced its negotiating position for the upcoming Kyoto conference. It proposed stabilization of emissions at…
News Release
Kyoto Media Advisory: December 10, 1997
Industrialized nations have tentatively agreed to a global warming protocol covering six “greenhouse gases” — carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur…
News Release
Kyoto Media Advisory: December 8, 1997
Kyoto Gets Gored Al Gore flew into Kyoto this morning — allegedly not to solicit funds at the more than 100,000 Buddhist temples…
News Release
Kyoto Media Advisory: December 5, 1997
Third World Fumes COP-3 in Kyoto is the culmination of earlier summits — the Rio Conference in 1992, the implementation of energy curtailment…
News Release
Kyoto Media Advisory: December 4, 1997
Poor Countries Still Oppose Energy Starvation Diet Developing countries continue to signal their unwillingness to sign binding emissions reduction targets in Kyoto. The…
News Release
Will Gas Lines Come Back?
WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 1997 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) began an ad campaign this morning attacking the proposed climate treaty being negotiated…
News Release
Kyoto Media Advisory: December 3, 1997
Many at COP-3 are behaving as if the Clinton-Gore administration speaks for the U.S — as if the eager quest for an aggressive global…
News Release
Kyoto Media Advisory: December 2, 1997
COP-3 opened as a Victorian drama, with the U.S. position in imminent peril as its prime defender, Undersecretary of State Tim Wirth, suddenly abandoned…
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Deja Vu All Over Again
History doesn’t repeat itself, but the machinations of big-government politicians are vexingly repetitious. Perhaps nothing better illustrates the plus ca change, plus ca meme…
News Release
Kyoto Media Advisory: December 1, 1997
(Kyoto, December 1, 1997) Japan’s Foreign Minister opened the UN climate conference, known as “COP-3,” by calling it “an event that could change the…
Newsletter
Vol. I, No. 11
Politics Europe May Compromise The European Union’s chief negotiator, Jorgen Henningsen, has conceded that the EU may be willing soften its stance on climate change.
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Australia Cool To Warming
In the later stages of the application process for Australia’s foreign service, candidates are provided with an armful of documents detailing the nation’s foreign policy.
Newsletter
Vol. I, No. 10
Politics U.S. Position Revealed On October 22, after months of speculation, the Clinton Administration finally announced its official negotiating position for the upcoming climate change…
News Release
Clinton Climate Proposal – All Pain, No Gain
WASHINGTON, DC, October 22 , 1997 — President Clinton’s long awaited announcement today that he will officially propose reducing greenhouse gas emissions to…
Newsletter
Vol. I, No. 9
Politics White House Climate Change Conference On October 6, 1997 the White House hosted a conference at Georgetown to “educate” the American people about the…
News Release
Kyoto Media Advisory: December 9, 1997
Anticipation Builds for Kyoto Finale The mood of the climate conference turned positively euphoric with US lead negotiator Stu Eisenstat’s proposal to create…
News Release
Kyoto Media Advisory: December 6-7, 1997
UN Corruption Exposed in Kyoto P.J.O`Rourke suggests that everybody wants to save the planet; nobody wants to help wash the dishes. UN employees…
News Release
Institute Founder To Testify Before House Subcommittee On Energy And Environment
WASHINGTON, DC, October 6, 1997 — Competitive Enterprise Institute announced today that its president and founder, Fred L. Smith, Jr. will testify before the…
News Release
White House Distorts Greenhouse Facts
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 3, 1997 — Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) announced today that they will run an advertisement in the Sunday Outlook section of the…
Study
The Human Costs of Global Warming Policy
Nine out of 10 Americans don’t know anything about U.S. global climate policy, according to a poll released in June 1997 by the Small Business…
News Release
Scientists To Cool Global Warming Rhetoric
Monday, September 29 11:00am- 1:00pm 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building RSVP – Nicole Hamilton, 202-331-1010, x 239…
Newsletter
Vol. I, No. 8
Politics Gore Lore Al Gore recently visited Glacier National Park in Montana to heighten fears about global warming. He warned that global warming is causing…
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Vol. I, No. 7
Politics “Slouching Towards Kyoto” from Down Under The two most influential lawmakers in Congress on climate change issues traveled half way around the world to…
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Ready! Fire! Aim!
Bush Administration EPA Administrator William Reilly once quipped that his agency’s standard approach when faced with a policy decision could best be characterized as…
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Vol. I, No. 6
Politics UN Conference in Bonn The United Nations recently ended a negotiating session in Bonn, Germany to lay the groundwork for the upcoming conference in…
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Vol. I, No. 5
Politics Clinton’s Public “Education” Campaign On July 24 President Clinton began his promised campaign to alert the American people to the dangers of climate change…
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No Quarter for Kyoto
Most policy disputes are first and foremost rhetorical battles for the moral high ground. Is affirmative action unfair racial preference or justice to minorities?…
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Seizing the High Ground: Cautionary Notes on the Rhetoric of Climate Change Policy
Full Document Available in PDF…
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Vol. I, No. 4
Politics Senate Resolution Passes 95-0 The Byrd-Hagel Resolution (SRes 98) passed on July 25 by a margin of 95-0 (BNA Daily Environment Report, July 28,…
News Release
Global Warming Conference A Smashing Success
WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 15. Over 160 People gathered at the National Press Club today to learn more about the cost and impact of the…
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Vol. I, No. 3
Politics U.S. Derided for Failing to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro became a United States bash-fest. This year’s…
Newsletter
Vol. I, No. 2
Science Fudge Positively Correlated With Higher Temperatures “Climate modelers have been ‘cheating’ for so long it’s almost become respectable,” writes Richard Kerr for the journal…
News Release
Climate Change Policy: All Pain, No Gain
WASHINGTON, DC June 6, 1997 – Binding limits on greenhouse emissions will be devastating to families in the United States and other countries according…
News Release
Institute Releases Latest Spin On Hurricanes
Washington, DC June 5, 1997 – The fears that hurricanes will increase in both number and intensity as a result of global warming are…
Newsletter
Vol. I, No. 1
Science Climate Change? Not Yet! Finally someone has brought the climate change debate back down to earth. Amidst claims by environmentalists that we are in…
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Hurricane Hype
The Clinton-Gore Administration has seized upon recent weather extremes to promote the fear of global warming. Speaking in North Dakota after this spring's floods, President…
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Precautionary Petard
The Precautionary Principle – the proposition that new technologies or products should not be permitted until we know they won't endanger health, safety, or…
News Release
Economic “Consensus” Bandwagon on Warming Derailed
Urging caution in the face of calls for drastic action over the issue of global warming, the Competitive Enterprise Institute responded to today's press conference…
Study
The Costs of Kyoto
In 1997, the Competitive Enterprise Institute set out to answer just that question. CEI sponsored a conference on the implications of an international treaty…
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Clinton’s Stealth BTU Tax
The centerpiece of President Bill Clinton's first budget proposal was a massive energy tax. The tax on BTUs (or "British Thermal Units") was estimated to…
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Trashing Free Trade: The Basel Convention’s Impact on International Commerce
Trashing Free Trade: The Basel Convention’s Impact on International Commerce by James M. Sheehan With the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995,…
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Cool Climate…
Environmental activists are increasing the heat on policy makers worldwide to do something about global warming before it is too late. They charge that human…
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Hot Politics
As United Nations negotiations for the Global Climate Convention convene this month, scientists on the UN's panel of expert advisers are under fire for altering…
Study
The True State Of The Planet
The True State of the Planet: Ten of the World’s Premier Environmental Researchers in a Major Challenge to the Environmental Movement Date: 1995 Edited…
Study
Global Warming: Messy Models, Decent Data, Pointless Policy
Full Document Available in PDF The apocalyptic vision of the greenhouse effect has been presented to us all through a never-ending series…
Op-Eds
A Fresh Look at Environmental Policy
Environmental journalists are, on the whole, fairly good at producing stories. Unfortunately, these lend to be the stories put forward by the environmental establishment: Large…
Op-Eds
The Market and Nature
(Originally appeared in The Freeman, September 1993) Many environmentalists are dissatisfied with the environmental record of free economies. Capitalism, it is claimed, is…
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Kentucky Hosts Rio Follow-Up…but Frivolity is Pretty Big on the Agenda
Article available in pdf format…
Study
The Clean Fuels Myth and the Market Alternative: Mobile Sources Emissions Charges
Full Document Available in PDF…
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Eco-Apartheid: It’s Africans versus Elephants and Environmentalists
Full document available in pdf format.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Developing nations regularly complain that……
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Carnival of Dunces
Rio is a beautiful city, shoehorned between steep granite mountains and seemingly infinite sandy beaches where, despite the thinning of the ozone layer, eco-efficient clothing…
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Environmental Policy at the Crossroads
Full Chapter Available in PDF Format Executive Summary It has always been with us, and…
Staff & Scholars
Sam Kazman
Counsel Emeritus
- Antitrust
- Automobiles and Roads
- Banking and Finance
Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Ben Lieberman
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Consumer Freedom
- Energy
Jacob Tomasulo
Policy Analyst
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Kevin D. Williamson
Writer in Residence
- Climate
- Energy and Environment